Posted on June 22, 2021
Vacation Time
This week will be a little light on updates in general as I’m off enjoying some scenery in the mountains. It’s nice to recharge a bit once in a while and the weather has been nothing short of gorgeous this whole time. That said I’m working on my script for the next video as well while I’m out here as it’s actually a really nice to focus on the writing! Here is a teaser image of that one as of course I’ll take the opportunity to get some scenic shots too.
Posted on June 18, 2021
Livestream 6/17/2021 – Geforce 7800GS AGP
This will be my final livestream for the month of June as far as GPUJune goes. I’m out next week on vacation so I wanted to try and finish out the event with a card that was as close as it could to the end of the era. To clarify the idea was to feature GPUs before they adopted Unified Shaders. I’m not the best person to tech deep dive on that but as a general idea that means GPUs before 2006 depending on model.
In this case that was the Geforce 7800GS which is likely the most powerful AGP based GPU I have that still fits that bill. It’s an odd type of card as around 2005 when this came out PCI Express was already the de facto standard. That said manufactures still offered some cards with AGP as an upgrade path. Imagine having an older computer or a hand me down with AGP then this card would have been a solid option. Likely not as fast as the contemporary PCI Express cards but still an improvement. How we got to this particular card for the stream is a long story which I go through partly in the video. It involved failing GPUs, stubborn machines and many trials and tribulations before I ended up settling on this setup.
It was a fun stream and a lot of chatter on parts, video cards and games from the mid 2000s and I had a blast. Check out the replay below.
Posted on June 16, 2021
Jets’n’Guns
I’m quite the fan of scrolling shooter games or “SHMUPS” (Shoot’em ups) for short. There have been many entries into that category ranging from classics such as Gradius, R-Type or Tyrian just to name a quick few ones off the top of my head. They all have their own tone but frequently go with a sci-fi setting since it works well with the type of game presented.
Years ago the developer Rake In Grass developed the game Jets’n’Guns for the PC. Published in 2004 it can best be considered an indie game before that was an established thing. You pilot your small craft in a sidescrolling manner blasting just about everything in sight. Tons of things happen on the screen at any given time with boatload of little details. It can get quite hectic but also just engrossing in the amount of things presented to the player. Environments everywhere can be blow up or demolished.
You earn cash for each mission which you can spend in a shop to further upgrade your ship weapons or gear. The choice and style the player decides to go with can drastically alter how each level plays out adding a nice strategic depth. It’s possible to build a total flying murder machine making levels trivial or on the opposite spectrum make it a lot harder if you have the wrong loadout.
The game has a gritty underworld in space sort of feel to it. Renegades, outlaws and unruly folk of that kind that just need to be blasted out of the sky (or space). It’s great fun and the game actually loops when you complete it while allowing you to keep all your cash, gear and equipment allowing you to grow even further as the challenge increases.
Above all the reason I wanted to write quick about it is the terrific soundtrack provided by Swedish metal band Machinae Supremacy. I’ve long been a fan of theirs and the rocking soundtrack provides the perfect backdrop to all your space murdering.
Take a listen and see what I mean. Amazing (especially the shop music it’s just fantastic).
The Gold edition of the game packs more content in and is available on many modern platforms even though it was originally written for PC so long ago. I’d say it plays best on PC and is available on Steam but I’ve had a great time with it on Switch as well.
I should also mention the sequel in Jets’n’Guns 2 which is good but may not live up to the lofty standards of the first game sadly. I’m hoping it can be expanded upon and patched to reach the heights of the original at some point but for the moment I’d say you are better off spending your cash on the first one. That said the soundtrack of the second game is arguably even better (again that shop music!).
Posted on June 13, 2021
Special Livestream 6/12/2021 – PixelPipes
I wanted to do an extra special livestream for GPUJune and I reached out to the YouTuber PixelPiles who spun up the whole thing in the first place. I was very happy when he agreed to come on as a guest on an extra livestream which I believe was even his first live appearance! I certainly had a great time and we discussed GPUs of course but then a lot about our content creation process, gaming consoles and then also took questions from the viewers. It was a blast and I definitely hope to do more livestreams with guest hosts as it provides a great way to keep the conversation and discussions going. Check out the (very long hah) replay below.
Posted on June 11, 2021
Livestream 6/10/2021 – Rage 128 Pro Mac Style
GPUJune is still in full effect so for this week’s livestream I figured I would focus on yet another video card. And in this case it’s the ATI Rage 128 Pro that came in a Mac PowerPC G4 I picked up in the lot the other day. It’s basically the card that shipped with the computer so it’s nothing special per se but I think it’s an interesting contrast to try out some well known games this way. Both from the Mac perspective but also in the sense that probably a lot of people played the games just like this. On a “base” machine (if a Mac can ever be called that based on price) with no additional upgrades. I think it was a super fun stream as I always love seeing different perspectives even though the 128 Pro buckled under some newer titles. I believe performance wise the card falls somewhere between a Riva TNT and a TNT2 if you need a general timeframe. Still great discussions and I learned a lot from some of our friends who are definitely more familiar with the Mac systems of this era. Check out the replay below.
